About 1,700 retired soldiers have threatened to mass up at Parliament House today if they are not paid their allowances and gratuities.
The soldiers say they have not received their full emoluments since 2010 despite several letters and petitions to the Defense Ministry and the Ghana Armed Forces.
Some of the aggrieved ex-servicemen came to the premises of Joy FM complaining that they are struggling to survive.
WO1 John Teye who speaks for the angry ex-military men also accused the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) of using an outdated method of assessing gratuity to work out their pension allowance.
He said they have sighted a document from the Finance Ministry which confirms their claims and was certain the GAF wants to “underpay” them.
“That is why we wrote the letters and copied the Ministry of Finance because the whole thing is shrouded in secrecy,” he asserted.
Mr. John Teye said some of the soldiers took loans in 2009 to be repaid over three years. In May 2010, he said, they were put on “compulsory retirement....and [GAF] sat down with the banks, and you deducted the loan we have taken with interest within that short period, how much would be left for me?”
He indicated that about five of his colleagues have died as a result of how their retirement was handled by the Ghana Armed Forces.
WO John Teye said the Speaker of Parliament and chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence have been notified about their convergence at the Parliament house today.
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